Bobby Seale

I consider myself a political revolutionary humanist.

The first point was we wanted power to determine our own destiny in our own black community. And what we had done is, we wanted to write a program that was straightforward to the people. We didn't want to give a long dissertation.

I'd have no trouble being the barbecue kingpin of America. I'd just add it to all the other things I am: jazz musician, carpenter, architect, engineer and revolutionary.

Being so closely related to the South, barbecue was part of segregation and helped defeat it.

I'm a progressive. The progression has to be manifested in a new direction in policies and legislation.

There is an entire generation of young people who know nothing about how viciously the FBI attacked The Black Panther Party, and why.

The Black Panther Party was not a gang. They grew out of a young black intelligentsia on college campuses.

I have quite a few good friends in Philadelphia who were police officers.

I'm going to have to call up Spike Lee. I did a cameo for him in 'Malcolm X,' and I'm trying to get him to do my life story and the history of the Black Panther Party.

We were like heroes, to stand there and observe the police, and the police were scared to move upon us.

I think I can capture the taste buds of the average right-wing conservative who loves barbecue.

I always tried to raise money for the Black Panthers through business schemes.

I think the American Dream should be about a greater progressive legislation that allows for what I call a necessary future world of cooperational humanism.

The FBI's Counter-Intelligence Program would work hand-in-hand with police departments, literally planning attacks on Black Panther Party offices throughout the United States of America. They did this over a period of time.

Lots of people think I went to prison. I never went to prison. I was in jail without bail.

Fox News never calls up Bobby Seale to articulate a stance in opposition to right-wing conservatives. To me, giving the New Black Panthers a platform on Fox is a subtle tactic to scare people.

When donors visited the Black Panther Party, they came and saw our real programs, a real clinic, with real doctors and medics, giving service to people.

They came down on us because we had a grass-roots, real people's revolution, complete with the programs, complete with the unity, complete with the working coalitions, where we crossed racial lines.

Revolution is about the need to re-evolve political, economic and social justice and power back into the hands of the people, preferably through legislation and policies that make human sense. That's what revolution is about. Revolution is not about shootouts.

People called me a hoodlum and a thug. But they didn't tell you I was a carpenter, an architect, a stand-up comic - even a bartender. And a barbecue cook. But they didn't tell you that.

I'm still a political revolutionary. The fire never went out of me, but perceptions and realizations change.

There's nothing wrong with being a cop. There's nothing wrong with being a white person. It's about where your heart is... We've got to get everyone beyond the xenophobic isolationism.

The first African-American leader was Dr. Martin Luther King.

If they had not murdered Malcolm X, there probably never would have been a Black Panther Party.

The Black Panther party of Self-Defense is a revolutionary party.